To celebrate the upcoming release of my new M/M paranormal romance The Werewolf’s Heart on May 9, here’s a quote from the novel.
This assignment was full of challenges. Like me going undercover as a suburban homeowner, posing as an ‘average’ lone werewolf among humans. My interests included grisly murders, supernatural victims or suspects, and bringing killers to justice.
Now? I needed to blend in. Live a normal life. Whatever the hell that meant.
It sounded kinda like torture. Then I met him.
I’m not sure why I always think I need the perfect opening line to talk about a new book, but whatever the perfect way to begin is, I haven’t found it. So let’s just dive right into discussing my M/M paranormal romance The Werewolf’s Heart.
In celebration of the book coming out on May 9, I’m going to post a quote and excerpt from the novel, but I’m not sure I’ve shared the cover and description yet, so that’s what is happening first.
Aaron Honeywell’s new house is a fixer upper, but his love life feels broken beyond repair. Fortunately, this fresh start is his chance to find the right man to help turn his house into a home. His sexy new neighbor Meritt seems like just such a guy until he saves Aaron from a handsy stranger, revealing that he’s more than man—he’s a werewolf.
Meritt Slate has worked some challenging cases before, but this is a whole other level of difficult. The detective is stuck undercover in suburbia to lure out whoever’s abducting werewolves. And his alluring neighbor is quite the distraction. Fighting his desires and doing his job has never been a problem before, but it’s possible he’s finally found someone worth settling down for.
But the dangers lurking outside their cozy street are getting closer to home. And when the supernatural world comes knocking on Aaron’s door, a werewolf protector may not be enough to save him. Can the werewolf protect his heart, or will evil forces break it first?
In this scene, Meritt the supernatural detective talks about the challenges with his latest case.
This assignment was full of challenges. Like me going undercover as a suburban homeowner. My interests included grisly murders, supernatural victims or suspects, and bringing killers to justice.
Now? I needed to blend in. Live a normal life. Whatever the hell that meant. Ugh, days, maybe weeks or more, full of… Being friendly. Polite chitchat at mailboxes. Socializing. Maybe going on a few dates. What regular people did. Even when they were werewolves , according to my annoying younger siblings.
Honestly? Pretending to be a regular werewolf living on the down-low among humans? Kinda sounded like torture.
Then I met him.
Aaron Honeywell—seriously with that last name?—was tempting. Too tempting…
Let’s play a game. Let your imagination run wild when thinking about this question.
What’s your dream home and who’s your dream neighbor?
In this scenario you’re free to live anywhere and have any kind of home your heart desires. And when you move into your ideal neighborhood, who would you be super happy to see living across the street?
(I wanna make some joke about the eye candy adding curb appeal but I don’t have it.)
Are you picturing a log cabin in the mountains with a sexy lumberjack? Or a palatial estate with an infinity pool, acres upon acres of land, and a classically handsome hottie with a square jaw grinning at you from his sports car?
Admittedly my head started somewhere around the latter but then I realized I’m a whimsical romantic sort. Cute, cozy, and a little quirky is much more my speed. So I started searching for fairytale-esque cottages.
The house is in Carmel-by-the-Sea California. Awesome name, and you don’t even have to ask if it’s near the sea because it’s right there in the title. The town apparently attracts artists and oddballs that want the area to retain its eccentric charm, so I’m guessing there’s no Chipotle nearby but otherwise looks like a nice place to live.
And since this is a fantasy I don’t have to ask myself who would water those plants and why I thought I could handle the responsibility of keeping them alive.
My ideal neighbor was a bit of a challenge because I wanted someone super good looking who also might be able to walk into a small cottage without bumping his head.
I went with Freddie Stroma from Bridgerton, though I recently watched him on Unreal where sometimes he looks nice and conventionally attractive and other times he grows a beard or gets this steely look in eye and goes from cute to dirty hot in a very appealing way.
The inspiration for today’s hypothetical question came to me based on my newest novel.
The book is a paranormal romance, so I suppose the scenario actually goes like this: What if your new home came with everything you desired, including a sexy new neighbor? What if your new neighbor was also a werewolf?
The Werewolf’s Heart is my new book that launches on May 9th. There’s a lot more to share with you soon, including the cover and special release day bonuses.
(No idea if this needs to be said, but in case you’re wondering, the book is of course M/M.)
The newest book from me is called Instalove, a magical YA LGBTQ novel. This book is about Avery Ward, a regular 17-year-old who thinks he’s falling in love for the first time. But when your family has magic and your younger sister is a stubborn little witch, nothing is as simple as it seems.
This is from the beginning of the book where Avery talks about his family and his connection to magic.
~
When given the choice, most people would rather learn about my sister than me. Stella Ward is the Witch, the girl wonder who can move objects with her mind and turn the laws of the natural world inside out.
Avery Ward is the junior who runs track, the guy who gets supporting roles in the school plays with a good audition. Enough about him, let’s hear more about this sister. Yeah, yeah. I get it.
I’m normal. My sister isn’t.
Witchcraft seems so cool and interesting to people who grew up without it. When someone close to you has powers and you don’t, it’s mostly extremely annoying. But siblings can be that way.
However, there are always reminders that she’s not an ordinary little sister. It’s not fun to pull eye of newt or wing of bat out of the refrigerator when needing ketchup. Instead of listening to me on the phone or snooping in my text messages, she can cast a spell to read my mind.
Aside from the lesson to always know what you’re grabbing before putting it on food, Stella’s magic barely impacted my life. It intersected with me like a cold or a mild fever. There are a few days of congestion and mild discomfort and then the inconvenience goes away without any lasting damage.
At least that’s what I wanted to believe. It worked for a while. Her magic didn’t make a big impression on my life.
Until it did.
—Instalove is available now!
Small confession time. This novel is about a guy who is crazy about another guy, but I’ve been using a tool called Bookbrush lately to make graphics like the above. And there’s lots of pre-made options involving ladies, so since Stella and her magic play a big role in making everything happen, I look at this as one of my few chances to actually use the templates with females.
Who is Avery Ward, you might ask as you read the title of this post. Because that’s what the post says.
Well, thanks for asking!
If you wanna get literal about it, he’s the main character of the gay paranormal romance Instalove. He’s also the 17-year-old protagonist who thinks the magic in his family doesn’t affect him, until he finds out that the thing he holds most dear may be the result of a spell.
From an author standpoint, I enjoy writing prose in his special angst-y yet practical perspective. I don’t make characters exactly like me but sometimes I give them something of mine. Avery has my taste in music. And he’s sort of a pessimist who’s trying to be more optimistic, which we also share.
Otherwise, I’ll let Avery tell you about himself in his own words. All you need to know for the following excerpt is that Stella is Avery’s little sister.
~
When given the choice, most people would rather learn about my sister than me. Stella Ward is the Witch, the girl wonder who can move objects with her mind and turn the laws of the natural world inside out.
Avery Ward is the junior who runs track, the guy who gets supporting roles in the school plays with a good audition. Enough about him, let’s hear more about this sister. Yeah, yeah. I get it.
I’m normal. My sister isn’t.
Witchcraft seems so cool and interesting to people who grew up without it. When someone close to you has powers and you don’t, it’s mostly extremely annoying. But siblings can be that way.
–Check it out here. You can buy the book or read it on KU.
In an announcement I’m totally not late in making at all, I have a new book out. The novel Instalove is a gay paranormal romance set in a modern world where real magic exists.
Avery Ward is the main character. He’s an ordinary high schooler who lacks the magic all the witches and warlocks in his family wield. He thinks the supernatural world doesn’t involve him much until learns that a spell might be responsible for the best thing in his life.
The book also reached number one in one of its categories! Thanks so much to everybody who’s supported the novel so far.
I’ll share some scenes from the novel later, but I’m trying to do something new and stay on topic. And that topic is announcing the new book, yay! Yes, the ‘yay’ is included. Here’s the cover and description.
Can instant love truly last? Or will a witch’s spell lead to a broken heart?
Avery Ward doesn’t have magic powers. Get used to it. He has. Yes, his illusionist father can transport readers to beloved novels, and his sister can turn him into a toad when he hogs the bathroom. Avery prefers normal. As he nears his 4-month anniversary with boyfriend Chris, his regular life is looking pretty fantastic. Except according to his little sister, a spell she cast last week created his relationship.
All spells end sooner or later. So it’s better to steer clear of Chris and his sister until the dust settles. But when an evil wizard begins tormenting his high school, only the trio can stop him before anyone gets hurt…
To keep people safe and combat the fear taking over his school, Avery needs more than magic. He needs a miracle. If he succeeds, maybe he’ll receive a miracle of his own. Maybe he can keep Chris.
But when love and magic combine, how do you trust your heart?
Instalove is a gay romance novel about the power of ordinary magic and what it means to be the one who doesn’t fit in, even when fitting in means flying and performing spells like the rest of your family. While Avery appears in Black Cats and Bad Luck, that story focuses on different characters, so this book can be read on its own.
Grab your copy of this enchanting coming-of-age novel today to fall in Instalove!
Ryan is a brainy overachiever with ivy league dreams. Luke is a bi athlete whose whole future is up in the air since he decided he’s not going to give up the first part for the second. Their love story is perfect for them, queer, overly competitive, snarky, and sweet.
But all good things must come to an end, right? Maybe.
It’s the end of senior year, and the odds are good they’ll be in different places for college. Ryan’s friends don’t want him to do anything rash that he’ll regret while he contemplates a long-distance relationship. So his friends are checking if they need to talk some sense into him in the scene down below from One Big Decision.
Ryan
“This is… a pep talk?” I asked.
“Um.” They faltered, glancing to each other unsurely. Pep? Not exactly their strength.
“Okay, not pep.” I tried again. “A crushing reality talk?”
They conferred silently, nodding. “Yeah, we’ve got this.”
They were both wearing dark clothes, looking vaguely like enforcers in some old-timey gangster movie thanks to Zach’s slicked back hair and Lydia’s general face and attitude.
“There’s no need,” I said, attempting to put myself out of my misery. “I understand. I can’t change my mind now just because Luke isn’t sure he can go to the same city. I need to think of my future and what’s best for me, not what’s best for my relationship. Right?”
That’s what they wanted to impart, albeit with more ‘dumbass,’ ‘moron,’ and ‘pathetic loser.’
“Uh. Yes.” They conferred silently again, suspicious and unsure. “This was easy,” Lydia admitted.
“I mean, I’m still convinced we’re living happily ever after and you especially,” I told Zach. “Can suck it because we’re so gonna be together, we so are. Not only do I want to be happy with Luke in general for love reasons, I also want the same for spite reasons, so double reasons.” I narrowed my eyes at him, challenging. “You just watch us, you—”
“Fine, you and Luke will be together forever and ever,” Lydia humored me, realizing I’d gotten carried away and forgot what we were talking about. “You’ll ride unicorns down the aisle to a wedding officiated by Tim Gunn and Bill Nye the Science Guy.”
“Weird combo,” I provided my opinion obligatorily. “I dig it.”
“Even in your happily ever after love story, you and Luke still go to college in different cities,” she finished the hypothetical. “Are you okay with that?”
“Yes,” I asserted immediately. “Maybe,” I amended when met with their disbelief and slightly evil faces. “Where I go to school is about me, not him. I know that.” I whispered, “Part of me wants to not know that.”
I wished I didn’t know. I wished for a lot of things.
For my new novel and series, I put together some posts that are an introduction to the world and characters of Black Cats and Bad Luck. This paranormal romance is available for free. It’s a new adult gay romance about magic, familiars, dreams, and monsters.
One of the main characters is Horatio, a former familiar who is seeking his true love. You know how shapeshifters are a hot trend in fiction now? This is kind of like that, except it only works in one direction and only once. He spent some time in cat form, though he isn’t really a cat. Because when I try to write shapeshifters, apparently my brain cooperates to a point and then does its own thing.
In this scene, Horatio meets up with the young witch he lived and worked with, her older brother Avery, and his friend Jonah.
~
Avery
“Horatio is a cat.” I went over the facts, seeking comfort from them. “He eats from a black dish with little stars decorating the outside. He gets hair all over my pillows, he smacks me in the face with his tail. Because he’s a cat, our—”
“I hope you weren’t going to say pet,” he interrupted sternly.
“He’s right, Avery,” Stella said. Great, they were both glaring at me. “We don’t own him, we never did.”
Rubbing my face with both hands, I groaned. What the hell I did not even believe in? What the hell? All I could say was, “He’s not Horatio.”
“I am Horatio,” the guy argued.
“And you were lonely, so you followed us here?” And also grew human parts.
“No, you’re where I need to be, and I can sense you strongly. You’re my bridge between worlds.”
Not sure what to do with that, I only weakly said, “Horatio is a cat.”
“I was,” he agreed. “But no longer.”
Everyone had gone insane. I did not have enough sanity on my own to bring them all back to reality. So I did the only thing I could. I gave up, falling back on the bed, closing my eyes, and wishing the world a fond farewell. It would have to get along without me.
“Oh my god.” Jonah laughed. “Awesome! Are you serious?”
Distantly, a reasonable part of myself tried to mount a defense. It argued I shouldn’t allow a naked, possibly deranged guy to waltz in here just because he guessed the name of our cat.
If anyone else showed up out of nowhere buck-naked claiming to be a family pet, or a rough equivalent, they would be full of shit. But this guy? I believed him. While the shape of him changed, he was still Horatio.
— the rest is available here. For free!
In romcom terms, this is the meet cute between the main characters. This scene is from Falling in Love and (Other Bad Ideas).
Zach
Joey moved ahead of Luke, walking even with me to better annoy me, unless he just wanted to walk down the stairs with me for some reason, which would be weird, so the first one. Or more like, he attempted to walk with me while still narrating his fever dream and gesturing broadly.
Basically, I was doomed. Joey was a catcher, built to stay where he was planted. Me, being the shortstop, had to be the opposite: quick, flexible, and able to cover more ground. So the math was easy. He made a motion with his arm and pushed me, and I wasn’t prepared. I went flying, sailing over the last few steps instead of stepping down them. Down I went.
…There so many situations where I would happily go down, but this wasn’t one of them.
Except instead of hitting the ground, I instead landed right in the pages of some fucking chick flick novel. I fell right into somebody’s arms. It couldn’t have been choreographed better. I stared up at an unfamiliar face, his light brown eyes looking into my darker ones. The guy who caught me, the whole picture he painted boiled down to this: a standard male protagonist.
Should I ask Luke what romcom this meet cute was stolen from the pages of? He would probably know. Or wait, this could have been a terribly contrived introduction to the handsome stranger who saved me, but him being a stranger meant something. While entirely possible there were closeted guys at school I didn’t know about, it seemed unlikely. Either through firsthand knowledge or rumors from the guys I shared the aforementioned firsthand knowledge with, I had a pretty comprehensive understanding of any dudes at this school with queer leanings.
“Hi there,” the guy said to me with a little smile. He righted me and continued, “This is one hell of a meet cute, huh?”
No, I already decided it wasn’t! I dusted myself off, unnecessarily, but it made me feel more in control. “I don’t do cute. Not meet, or as a button, or otherwise.”
“Uh oh, is it about to get gay?” Joey asked, looking between us. “It’s fine, just give me some warning.”
“No, it’s not,” I said while the almost-protagonist said, “Yes, it is.”
“So, they answered differently, is that another clue?” Joey directed the question to Luke. “It’s about to get gay, right?”
“Well, I am gay,” the stranger answered. “So I’d argue whatever is happening is already gay.”
We all stared at him. Because… huh. Technically, I was right. This wasn’t some closeted guy I didn’t know about. Because he wasn’t closeted. Which threw us off. Until right then, everybody out at our high school was already in our friend group. And since we had never seen him before, he clearly did not meet these standards. His casual words weren’t anything we expected.
“Am I offending your family values?” he asked us, not really surprised. Seemed he’d been doing a lot of that lately.
“Don’t worry, he doesn’t have values,” Luke responded helpfully.
“Family or otherwise,” Joey added.
Luke looked between me and the new guy slowly. Uh-oh. “You did fall right into his arms.” Don’t let the jock thing fool you, he was actually a huge girl because I could see the words ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’ running through his head. “And did you hear what he said?” Luke asked me, nudging my side with an elbow. “About being gay?”
“I’m standing here with you, in front of him, so obviously I—”
“Dude, come on,” interrupted Joey. “He’s queerballs, and so are you.”
“Seriously?” I asked him.
“It’s destiny or some shit,” Joey reasoned. “Even I’m not strong enough to stand in the way.”
“Two queer people crossing paths doesn’t mean we need to kiss,” I argued. My life wasn’t a romcom.
“I agree,” the Standard Male Protagonist said. “But it is cool to meet you. You’re gay too?”
“Bi,” I corrected.
“Oh, you’re bi?” SMP asked.
“Not what I meant.” I tried again. “Bye.” Got it that time.
I walked away.
-Get your copy here!
Happy book release day! This is in no way a national holiday, but my book Falling in Love and Other Bad Ideas is out now.
Sometimes bad ideas are the hardest ones to resist…
Zach Ahmad is more used to fooling around than falling in love. In fact, the bi baseball player’s fondness for having a good time earns him many parental lectures from his disapproving father. But Zach isn’t expecting anything to change during his senior year, until he literally falls into the arms of the new boy at school.
When the new guy isn’t impressed by his charms, Zach can’t help but be intrigued by the dog-lover and do-gooder. Even if his meddling friends are trying to turn his life into a romcom. Just when Zach is ready to take a chance on something real, a curveball from his dad puts his whole future in jeopardy. Can Zach face his biggest challenge ever and still fall in love, or will he fall flat?
Falling in Love and Other Bad Ideas is an LGBT romance about what happens when a guy who never falls in love finds himself in a romantic comedy filled with meet cutes, matchmaking friends, and supposedly adorable canines. While characters in this story appear in the One More Thing universe, this standalone Zach novel can be read separately from the other books.
That’s the official stuff, but I wanted to say a little more about the book.
Inspiration: Zach is the kind of character who takes over. At least, he is for me. When writing this series, I would look back over a scene he’s in and remind myself the book wasn’t about him. Which meant naturally I needed to make a novel about him.
Our common traits: Sometimes I use a specific trait or event from my life, but I usually do more an inspired by true events thing than an accurate recounting. Zach and I sort of have lots in common in that we’re not-white bi people who avoid serious situations, and we don’t believe in the religions we were born into. However, we’re only share those traits in broad strokes, the more specific one goes, the more different we become. The part where I did draw inspiration from my own life is in how Zach’s parents don’t address him being bi.
Differences: Zach is confident in a way few people, including myself, are. His ego is both his biggest strength and weakness. And when focusing a book on him, it’s a great place to start as we test his confidence and see what’s under his bravado.
Gay Paranormal Romance 